Omsoft - Davis Wiki

Location

1623 5th St Suite F

Hours

Monday - Friday 9am til 7pm / Saturday 12pm-4pm

Phone

(530)758-0119

Website

http://www.omsoft.com

Omsoft is reputed to be the best DSL provider in Davis.

Note that the reasons cited are for fairly advanced use. If you just want to surf, play games, share files, chat through IM or voice, any provider will work fine. Omsoft's advantage lies in the fact that they give you a static IP, which basically lets you run a server (a web server, usually) over their connection a bit easier than otherwise. They also include 10GB of usenet access per month from Giganews.

While their basic service is dynamic IP, just like everyone else's basic service, the basic static ip option is only $5 more per month. One reason for this recommendation, though, was that they had the fastest turnaround time to setup a new order. Is this still true?

Know, however, that with the dynamic IP address scheme they will reset your connection once every 4 hours. I tried to pry an explanation out of them and only got customer-speak. They don't want you "hogging" an IP address (why not?) and claim that their routers need to renew their addresses or some such (maybe they should buy better routers, then?). This is a minor annoyance for most uses, but mIRC will always lose its connections (and usually fails to notice it without help), X-Chat does better... but if you're playing a clan match online it will probably drop you right off the server just in time to lose a close game. "Dynamic IP address" means that you don't necessarily get the same IP every time you dial in, it doesn't mean it has to change periodically! I'd like to hear a real reason why it's being done. Especially since checking my firewall logs I see the address only changed about half the time. -JeffreyNonken

Hey Jeff. I had this problem as well and it was because of my router. I had to go in and manually reset my connection every four hours which was really annoying, so I called them and they gave me a static IP which never goes off. arlen
Thanks for the feedback. Just to make the point absolutely clear, the connection issue may have caused problems with your router, but your router was not causing the resets. My router/firewall happens to handle it pretty well (it even beeps to let me know). I'm running Smoothwall Express on an old PC. Anyway, I don't think they actually need to do this for technical reasons, I expect something else is going on. And I'd rather not spend an extra $5/mo just to stop it. I like having a dynamic IP anyway, mostly. Moving target. :) -JeffreyNonken
It turns out that if you don't have a static IP they reset the routers every 4 hours. And besides that, my MODEM's power connection was flakey. They upgraded my MODEM to the latest model for free, and I finally gave in and got a static IP. Meantime, I've pretty much stopped gaming. :) -JeffreyNonken

* WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING *

As of today (1 Aug 2008) they have at least one unpatched DNS server according to Kaminsky's test. If you don't know about the DNS vulnerability, read this article. Run the tests here and here to see if you're vulnerable. If so, you can change your settings to use OpenDNS until Omsoft gets it fixed. Contact support and ask them when they'll be patched?

Once it's fixed somebody should remove this section (or change it to say that Omsoft is completely patched).

Note that even if you're not an Omsoft customer you should run the tests and see if your ISP is properly patched.

** Update **

Their Solaris expert apparently went on vacation just as this mess started, so they'll be patched as soon as he gets back.

-JeffreyNonken

* WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING * WARNING *

Comments:

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2005-09-16 09:56:37 Have to say that (my dynamic IP issue notwithstanding) they got me up and running in about 4 days, 5 days sooner than they said. So far no other problems. —JeffreyNonken

2005-11-29 17:54:23 A client of mine had persistent download speeds of 256Kbps when he had a 384Kbps-or-better DSL service with Omsoft. I measured repeatedly against various points on the 'net using various methods on two computers, without any SOHO routers or anything (using just the DSL bridge) - always 256Kbps. We complained and were told that it wasn't possible that we could be having this problem, since DSL line speeds started at 384Kbps. However, they did something because the download speeds magically improved immediately after we complained. Unfortunately, speeds dropped again a few weeks later. When my client's contract was up, we switched to another provider with whom we have been seeing consistent 1.5Mbps download speeds for months now. I'd prefer to stay local when the service is satisfactory, but in this case it wasn't satisfactory. Fortunately, Sonic.net, the best ISP in Northern California, is going to start providing DSL service in this area in the next month or two. —GrahamFreeman

2006-11-17 06:39:32 I think Omsoft wants to encourage people to get a static ip because DCN has a /16 so Omsoft has way more than enough. —NickSchmalenberger

2007-08-27 02:35:07 hows customer service for omsoft —KaiWan

2007-08-27 08:41:32 The nice thing about omsoft support is that you call and get in touch with a real live person when you call. I had pacbell previously to omsoft for DSL and I had to wade through hours of tier-support because I wasn't the problem (they always start by assuming you messed something up). With omsoft, my problems are fixed quickly and they don't question my technical competence. Now... The downside is that they don't have 24/7 support and if your dsl line goes down late friday, you won't get it fixed until early monday. The good news is that it doesn't do that generally anyway. —WesHardaker

2009-03-12 09:23:51 I noticed their FAQ page says that you have to purchase additional IP addresses if you want more than 1 computer to be able to use the connection simultaneously. The price chart only lists a price for additional addresses for the static IP option. Does anybody know if it's possible for more than 1 computer at a time to use the connection with the dynamic IP option? —KatieQuinn

Yes, multiple computers can use the connection at the same time with the dynamic IP option if you use a router that does NAT. You can't throw a paperclip without hitting one at most electronics stores.
You will need a router for multiple computers whichever way that you choose. Personally, I don't think they should charge more for additional ip addresses because they have over 65,536 of them but I haven't seen a detailed report on their address usage. Once they get IPv6 setup they will probably give everybody plenty of addresses. If you get a router that does Network Address Translation then you will be able to use private ip addresses for your computers with one address from them. There are problems with this, but it is a very common setup and is the way that all the cheapest routers work. Really people just need to let them know they want ipv6. As far as I know this is as much as they have planned for it. So call them and tell them you want ipv6, they need to know people are interested. —NickSchmalenberger

2009-10-06 16:22:08 I'm all for supporting locally owned businesses, but only if their service is comparable to the rest of the market. I've gotten internet through AT&T and Comcast before, and Omsoft is miles behind them in terms of reliability. I have daily outages and the customer service support is non-existant. I'm not really a fan of Comcast, but I had far fewer outages through them. Also, AT&T's DSL is way faster than Omsoft. —DanaMace

2009-10-06 16:37:50 I've been using OmSoft for 4 months now. They setup the DSL before their stated target date in an email sent to me; thus I had Internet the day I acquired the keys to my apartment. My previous ISP was AT&T and I never really had even close to 3Mbps despite my wrangling with CSRs (who would just blame me for everything, i.e., spyware somehow operating in an Linux environment :-\). But I'm not naïve enough to think that there is any ISP without connectivity problems from time to time. OmSoft did have a few hickups during the last 4 months but tech support was quite prompt and didn't once insult me like AT&T generally preferred; eventually my issues were resolved and I became a happy camper. Anyway, I've been achieving expected speeds for 3Mbps service and upload rates are always quite stable. For example, high quality videos play generally without a hitch providing conditions on the 'net are conducive to it. If you understand the limitations of DSL, such as the overheads involved, and the wild environs of the Internet, you can accept that problems will happen and speeds won't be perfect. That said, my experience with OmSoft has been superlative thus far. I just wish that their website were up with the times :-) —RyanMikulovsky

2009-10-07 06:30:28 In terms of reliability, I was under AT&T for about 3-5 years previously to Omsoft and had multiple long term outages. During the last 5-7 years that I've been under Omsoft, I've had I think 2. The first issue was that AT&T switched my circuit and didn't tell Omsoft, so I'll blame that one on them as well. And I honestly don't remember what the second one even was and am not positive there was one. I work from home and am online all the time and would notice immediately if I had outages, and I never do. —WesHardaker